in fact, its wider than the euphrates itself. unbelievable engineering achievement. >> alwash: this is my first time seeing it from the air this close up, and it is... it is spectacular. >> pelley: no one will ever know how many lives were lost and how many families were left in misery by the genocide that followed. >> alwash: they didn't even wait for nature to... to die a natural death. as soon as the embankments were finished, they put light to the reeds of the marshes. >> pelley: set fire to the reeds. >> alwash: set fire to the reeds. >> pelley: the cradle of civilization. >> alwash: where eden was. >> pelley: was desiccated. >> alwash: dead. >> pelley: we met some of the survivors, like sheikh hassan, returning to the rubble left by saddam's army. what happened to the village after everyone was ordered out? i mean, what happened to this house? >> sheikh hassan ( translated ): the government gave us three days to get out before the tanks came and crushed our houses. they destroyed about 180 houses in the area. >> pelley: has

rendell: people have been gambling since organized society was formed on the banks of the tigris and euphratesthey were gambling. and they will gamble as long as there's life on this planet. and that's a fact. >> les bernal: no one is saying that people can't gamble. this is about government using gambling to prey on human weakness for profit. >> stahl: les bernal is head of the national organization, stop predatory gambling. he and former massachusetts state senator sue tucker have been fighting a move to bring casinos and slot parlors to the bay state. >> bernal: we are in the worst economic crisis since the great depression, and the daily voice of government to most americans is "we're going to push casinos and we're going to push lottery tickets." >> stahl: well, but you have a situation where states are desperate. they're way over budget, they have to find revenue somewhere. they know people will gamble. >> sue tucker: as a revenue raiser, it defies every principle. it's regressive-- in other words, it takes far more money out of lower income people's pockets than higher income. it is can